SOUNDS AROUND TOWN: Johnny Irion brings special friends to Club Passim

By Ed Symkus, Correspondent

Thursday

Jun 21, 2018 at 12:12 PMJun 21, 2018 at 12:12 PM

Don’t even think about trying to pigeonhole the kind of music Johnny Irion plays. The North Carolina native who long ago settled down in western Massachusetts, has been in rock bands, is a student of all sorts of traditional folk traditions, has waded in country-folk waters when teaming with his wife Sarah Lee Guthrie, and knows his way around a good pop tune.

When he returns to the stage at Club Passim on June 27, during a tour to promote his new album “Driving Friend,” he’ll most likely be playing his Gibson Jumbo acoustic guitar, and he’ll be joined by his guitarist pal Wes Buckley along with, in Irion’s cryptic words, “some special guests.”

Like his wife, whose father’s first name is Arlo, Irion comes from a musical family.

“My grandmother, Rubilee, was a violinist in Beaufort, South Carolina, and she helped start the Beaufort Chamber Orchestra,” said Irion by phone from his car while on the way to a gig in New York. “And my grandfather, Fred, was a lead tenor on Broadway for ‘Oklahoma!’ So, there was always music around. As far as my parents were concerned, that wasn’t really what they wanted for me. But they kind of always understood.”

Though concentrating on guitar these days, Irion started out on bass. By the time the switch to guitar happened, he was well on the way to discovering very different styles of music.

“I fell in love with some early jangly pop bands, R.E.M. was one, but then graduated to [blues guitarist-singer] Elizabeth Cotten. I love a good hooky guitar riff, and I wanted to know how to do that. Then I wanted to write my own songs.”

As he got more into playing and singing, he made good on that wish.

“I did play some covers,” he said. “The first song I tricked out on guitar by ear was the R.E.M. song ‘Driver 8.’ Then it was some Steve Miller song. But I didn’t learn a lot of songs. I started writing my own very soon after I learned chords. Thinking back on it, I wish I had learned more songs because I probably would have been a better songwriter now.”

Irion achieved initial attention with his band Queen Sarah Saturday, which was formed in 1990 and was signed to Sony Records in 1993, putting out an album and a couple of EPs of guitar-driven pop-rock, before folding. That was followed by the blending of folk and rock and country on Irion’s solo albums, and by the folk-rock that came out of his joining up with Guthrie. Now, with the many different musical directions heard on “Driving Friend,” he admits that he can’t pick one particular style that he’s most comfortable with.

“I have this great friend Jim Youngerman, who’s an amazing artist,” he said by way of explanation. “We constantly have the conversation about not wanting to repeat yourself. I think that’s kind of the underlying thing with [reinventing] myself. It’s like, ‘Well, I already DID that.’ ”

Irion will be offering up music from all over the spectrum of his catalogue at the Passim show.

“We’ll play songs from the new album and some things that Sarah Lee and I have done,” he said. “I like to try out brand-new songs on audiences, so we’ll do some of that, and I also love playing Woody’s stuff” – that would be Sarah Lee’s grandfather.

With the knowledge that he’s not averse to performing a cover, he was asked if he’s still covering the anti-Trump song – that would be about Fred, the father of Donald – “Old Man Trump.”

But before revealing his answer, a brief history: After Woody Guthrie got out of the Merchant Marine, circa 1950, he moved into an apartment building in New York that was owned by Fred Trump. Eventually becoming aware of the virulent racism in Trump’s housing practices, he wrote some lyrics (but not music) about it that were discovered a couple of years ago by historian Will Kaufman and set to music by Ryan Harvey.

Irion’s answer: “I could play that song all night if you want me to.”

Johnny Irion performs a record release gig at Club Passim in Cambridge on June 27 at 8 p.m. Tickets: $20. Info: 617-492-7679.

Upcoming concerts and club dates

June 23:

The English Beat plays tunes from their new album “Here We Go Love” at The Sinclair in Cambridge. (9 p.m.)